SUMMARY
WIKIS in CTE CLASSROOMS The traditional classroom is making its way for such innovative tools as wikis in order to keep up with our days technologically demanding lifestyles. More and more classrooms are now learning, creating, reading, and testing online. Wikis as a tool are not just an inexpensive way to manage the classroom, it is a remarkable way to engage students in content across the curriculum though it was not designed as an educational tool. Like e-mails and blogs, wikis are considered by most people to be very simple to use them. Teachers can consider wikis as they would consider any teaching strategy as they can be useful in a teaching and learning context for supporting dialogue between students, encouraging their collaboration and reflections. In wikis, it is always a work in progress because articles are updated as new information becomes available. They are usually text driven, but can contain images, video and other media files. As to ownership, wikis have different levels of access which can be set by a wiki’s creator based on its goals: private, public or semi where anyone can view but only selected members can edit it. Due to this feature, wikis can be used for peer editing of any report/essay/reflective paper, for creating a collection of resources, for brainstorming for a project, for sharing knowledge base on a topic. Students can apply their creative, critical thinking as they work collaboratively to create a class wiki with content that can be utilized by peers for learning. Wikis can also engage learners within a digital learning environment in a safe, shared space. Students can edit and insert work into each other’s contributions and learn from and with each other. In these scenarios, teachers can use wikis as assessment tools also, as each student’s unique contributions can be tracked and assessed individually. (UNSW, 2019) While wikis’ use of technology may be inclusive in some ways, it can be unfair as well. Teachers should always consider the diversity of student backgrounds and skills when introducing wikis in their classrooms, as students who have little or no access to private study arrangements can find it difficult to actively read and write in the wiki. To ensure that all students have a specified time and place in which to contribute to the wiki space, providing computer-lab time should be essential in lesson planning. Furthermore, as for teachers a group-based learning can often reduce the marking and feedback load associated with individual assessment, some students who do not feel confident about their ability to communicate, or communicate in English prefer to work independently, and might find the group experience on wikis challenging and antagonizing. This type of students may require training in navigating the wiki space before any upcoming assignment. (UNSW, 2019) Altogether, popularity of wikis is growing as at their core they are as simple as they can be. They perform a very useful service in a very simple way. UNSW. Teaching. Blog, Wiki or Forum – which should you use? Retrieved Feb 18, 2019 from https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/assessment-blog-wiki-or-forum-which-should-you-use